


The Prisoner

by vanillafluffy



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Animal Abuse, Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, bucky to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8399050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillafluffy/pseuds/vanillafluffy
Summary: The theme was "human monsters", the prompt was "Sometimes it’s hard to keep the Winter Soldier under wraps".





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger warning for animal abuse!**

Three weeks and four hundred miles away from Washington DC, the traveler isn't sure where he is in terms of geography--western Pennsylvania or West Virginia is his guess. There's something comfortably familiar about living in the woods...not just from his missions--before that. The museum said he was part of a commando force, and he's pretty sure that's it--he doesn't think there are a lot of forests in Brooklyn. 

Once in a while, he'll go up to a house and ask to work for a meal. It gets him food he doesn't have to scavenge, and it gets him around people. The clearer his head gets, the more sociable he feels. It's been a long time since been around civilians, and his small talk is rusty. Much as he feels the urge to...chat, he doesn't know what to talk about. There are too many pitfalls: he isn't up to date on the news or sports, hasn't seen a movie in ages, and has big gaps in his memory. 

He's approaching a small farm that looks like it could use some work when he sees it. For a moment, he can't process what he's seeing. It's a dog, he realizes, barely recognizable as a Rottweiler. It looks more like a dog's skeleton with dirty black fur stretched over it. A heavy chain runs from its collar to a ring in the foundation of the barn. 

He's horrified. The creature is still alive; it bares its teeth at him as he gets closer, but he feels no fear, only sympathy for a fellow prisoner. 

When the dog snaps at him, it yelps, it nipped his left arm. He gets his metal hand on the chain and crushes it in his fist. 

"Hey! That's my dog!"

He turns to look. The man standing there is not starving by any stretch of the imagination. He's wearing mostly clean clothes, and he's glaring at the dog's rescuer 

"This is how you treat your dog?" Anger has given way to cold focus; the dog's so-called owner has no idea that the stranger is cataloging his weak points. 

"That dog is worthless! He had one job--guard the place--and he let some assholes in, they got two grand worth of tools."

"Maybe they fed him," replies the ex-assassin with exquisite courtesy. 

"That worthless piece of shit doesn't deserve--" He doesn't finish the sentence because it's impossible with his head on backward. 

The dog's rescuer looks down at the body. He should feel remorse, he knows. He's been thankful to be free, not to kill at Hydra's whim--but looking from the bloated corpse to the emaciated dog cringing nearby, he can't summon any regret. 

When he picks up the dog, it's far lighter than it should be. He can count its ribs and every knob of its spine. 

"Don't worry, old man," he says soothingly as it whines. "I'll get you fed and cleaned up. You'll never be chained again."

He strides back into the woods with his burden, as unobtrusively as he'd emerged. Now, though, he isn't alone. He has someone to talk to. 

...


End file.
